Faculty Research Brief: July 2010
Faculty Research Brief is a periodic report designed to inform the Stern community about new faculty research, new publications, awards and grants. Please send your research news to be considered for inclusion to paffairs@stern.nyu.edu.
Featured Research
New Model to Predict Box Office Revenue from Movie Scripts
Statistics show that green-lighting a movie script that fails to produce profits at the box office can lead to financial ruin for studios – close to negative 50% ROI for unsuccessful films. On the upside, box office hits can produce more than 200% ROI. In a recent study, Assistant Professor of Marketing Sam Hui, and colleagues Jehoshua Eliashberg and John Zhang of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, develop a new and reliable screening method to choose movie scripts that will outperform the market. Over the course of six years, the researchers studied 200 scripts, examining features including genre, content, semantics and the use of specific words, in relation to box office revenue and production budgets. The study shows how textual information from movie scripts can help predict revenues. In their paper, “Green-lighting Movie Scripts: Revenue Forecasting and Risk Management,” the authors underline the implications of this research for studio heads and investors, who could use the model to determine the likelihood of success for each screenplay and optimally select a film production portfolio based on their risk preferences.
Speaking Up in Groups: A Cross Level Study of Group Voice Climate and Voice
ITT Harold Geneen Professor in Creative Management Elizabeth Morrison, Stern doctoral student Sara Wheeler-Smith and a colleague analyze how shared beliefs about whether it is safe and effective to speak up (i.e., group voice climate), coupled with individual attitudes and beliefs, affect voice behavior (i.e., speaking up with suggestions, concerns and ideas within work groups). The authors conducted an investigation of voice behavior within 42 groups of engineers from a large chemical company. They found that individuals were much more likely to engage in voice behavior when they worked in groups with shared beliefs that voice is safe and effective, and that this effect was especially strong for those employees who were highly identified with the group. The results show that group-level beliefs about voice play an important role in encouraging open communication and that to enable more voice behavior, managers may want to focus on strengthening group voice climate. This paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
The Microtheory of Innovative Entrepreneurship
Harold Price Professor of Entrepreneurship William Baumol’s new book provides what may be the first formal microeconomic analysis of innovative entrepreneurship. It focuses on the differences between the innovative entrepreneur, who puts new ideas into practice, and the replicative entrepreneur, who launches a new business venture that bears a resemblance to existing ventures. Part of the The Kauffman Foundation-Berkley Center Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Microtheorgy of Innovative Entrepreneurship analyzes the importance of innovative entrepreneurship in economic growth and prosperity, and provides a formal theoretical analysis of the associated pricing and revenues. Carving out a space for innovative entrepreneurship in today’s mainstream study of microeconomics, Professor Baumol shares insights, which can be used to design more effective policies aimed at bolstering economic development.
Coaching Models: A Cultural Perspective – A Guide to Model Development for Practitioners and Students of Coaching
Diane Lennard, Clinical Associate Professor of Management Communication, has just published a book (Routledge) that serves as a resource for business coaches and students in the field. Professor Lennard examines the model development process, sharing a variety of coaching approaches and learning theories and underlining the importance of identifying cultural factors that affect coaching models and client interactions. Through several exercises and activities aimed at discovering one’s own values, beliefs and strengths, Professor Lennard guides readers through the process of developing an individualized coaching model, putting the model into action and reflecting on client interactions to enhance coaching practices. She also describes her own coaching technique, the Performance Coaching Model, which she uses in her work with MBA students and corporate clients.
Awards, Accolades and Presentations
Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences Sinan Aral was chosen this spring as a Microsoft Faculty Fellow, having competed with nominees from all over the world. Professor Aral will receive an award of $200,000 to pursue his research program, in which he analyzes data to understand how the movement of information in massive social networks affects the productivity of information workers, product adoption and demand patterns, and the spread of health behaviors in large populations.
Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences Anindya Ghose received two separate competitive research grants. The first grant, sponsored by The Marketing Science Institute and the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative, was awarded for his co-authored research (with Sangpil Han, a post-doc at Stern) entitled, “Modeling Consumer Behavior in Social Media: Analyzing the Role of Geographical Location and Multichannel Usage in Microblogging Platforms.” The second grant, sponsored by the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative, was awarded for his co-authored research (with Sanghee Bae, a Stern marketing PhD student), “Modeling and Examining the Interdependence between Search and Display Advertising.”
Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences Panagiotis Ipeirotis and a colleague received a $70,000 Research Award from Google for their proposal, "Collaborative Adaptive Data Sharing," to create theory and technologies that facilitate the effortless creation of "metadata" about information to enable easier searching for specific information by users. The Google Research Awards program aims to identify and support world-class, full-time faculty pursuing research in areas of mutual interest.
Professor of Management and Organizations Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison will be an Associate Editor for Behavioral Science and Policy, a publication that translates rigorous behavioral science research into concrete policy solutions.
Research Professor of Marketing Vicki Morwitz, together with Maya Vadiveloo, a doctoral candidate studying Nutrition at NYU, and Professor Pierre Chandon of INSEAD, was awarded a $9,984 grant from the Marketing Science Institute for her co-authored research proposal entitled, "Mere Belief Effects: The Effect of Health Labels on Consumers’ Perceived and Experienced Satiety.”
Starting July 1, Marketing Professor Joel Steckel is serving as co-Editor-in-Chief of the Marketing Letters journal.
Associate Professor of Finance Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, with Sydney Ludvigson at NYU Faculty of Arts and Science, received a three-year, $425,000 National Science Foundation grant for a project to build understanding of the ways in which housing wealth and housing finance affect the macroeconomy and asset markets. Separately, Professor Van Nieuwerburgh was appointed to Associate Editor at the Review of Financial Studies for a three-year term where he also received the excellence in refereeing award. He received Stern’s Excellence in Teaching Award in early May.
On July 19, Lawrence White, Arthur E. Imperatore Professorship in Entrepreneurial Studies and Deputy Chair of the Economics Department, testified at the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) hearing held jointly by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of Thrift Supervision.
Nomura Professor of Finance Jeffrey Wurgler received a 2010 Rising Star in Finance Award at a conference held in June. The award is given to young scholars who have made a significant contribution to the field of finance and whose impact is expected to grow.